2 Mar 2010
2:40 PM
Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios de la Salud, Managua
No one in our program seems to understand exactly what this place, the Center for Research and Study of Health, is all about. It's essentially just a block of sparsely fashioned classrooms, ostensibly to be used to ´study health´. We rent classroom space here for our afternoon classes because it's a 10 minute walk from our neighborhood, but I've yet to see a single other class in session. It's a bit like a scholastic ghost town, albeit one with a surplus of graphic sexual health posters. There are also a lot of transsexuals who hang out around the lobby/office/cafeteria area.
Oh, but there's air conditioning, glorious, heavenly air conditioning. It's 97 degrees in Managua today, and there ain't much shade in this barren city, so you feel every one of those 97 degrees every time you step outside.
And speaking of heat, we climbed a volcano the other day.
At the risk of abusing the heat theme, the conversation we just had with Antonio Lacayo was also hot.
This is the guy who essentially ran the country "under" Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, whose 1990 election marked the end of the Revolutionary period. Nicaragua in 1990 was a mess, with the economy in tatters (inflation was such that million-córdoba notes were the norm), a nasty "civil" war (in quotes because the US was heeeeeavily involved on the anti-revolution side) pitting nicaragüenses against each other, and a destitute population.
La Violeta, with children involved on both sides and a martyred ex-husband, was elected by a fatigued country to throw in the towel to the US and end the war. But besides being a soothing motherly symbol, she didn't really have any political experience (she went to finishing school, not college), so her son-in-law Antonio became her super-minister, charged with stabilizing the nation's economy while she ran around the country with doves convincing everyone to through their AK-47s into a big tub of cement in her Peace Park. That's only a mild simplification.
And stabilize the economy he did, thanks to the wonders of neoliberalism and the U.S.´s newfound love for the government of Nicaragua. Our 2.5 hour chat with him was a necessary slap in the face, as it challenged a lot of the stories we've heard around here about the glorious ideals of the revolution. I imagine that somewhere in between his demonization of everything the Sandinistas did and the revolutionary propoganda that runs rampant through the country lies the truth.
2:40 PM
Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios de la Salud, Managua
No one in our program seems to understand exactly what this place, the Center for Research and Study of Health, is all about. It's essentially just a block of sparsely fashioned classrooms, ostensibly to be used to ´study health´. We rent classroom space here for our afternoon classes because it's a 10 minute walk from our neighborhood, but I've yet to see a single other class in session. It's a bit like a scholastic ghost town, albeit one with a surplus of graphic sexual health posters. There are also a lot of transsexuals who hang out around the lobby/office/cafeteria area.
Oh, but there's air conditioning, glorious, heavenly air conditioning. It's 97 degrees in Managua today, and there ain't much shade in this barren city, so you feel every one of those 97 degrees every time you step outside.
And speaking of heat, we climbed a volcano the other day.
Behold Volcán Masaya. It was pretty friggin awesome. Impossible to capture in a picture how absolutely gigantic it was. Notice how the cars are parked facing away from the volcano. That's so that, if it starts spewing boulders into the air, they can make a fast get away. Don't worry, it only happens every few years.
Afterwards, we hopped on another bus (yeah, there was a busy bus stop just 3 miles from where this picture was taken) to the city of Masaya and then to La Laguna de Apoyo to cool off. Used to be a volcano, but it collapsed and filled with water.
We had to hike a mile-long ´trail´ from the bus stop to the public beach, where ´trail´ is here defined as ´essentially a vertical drop from where this picture was taken to the water below.´ But the harrowing/exhausting journey made that first splash all the more gratifying.
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6:38 PM
This is the guy who essentially ran the country "under" Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, whose 1990 election marked the end of the Revolutionary period. Nicaragua in 1990 was a mess, with the economy in tatters (inflation was such that million-córdoba notes were the norm), a nasty "civil" war (in quotes because the US was heeeeeavily involved on the anti-revolution side) pitting nicaragüenses against each other, and a destitute population.
La Violeta, with children involved on both sides and a martyred ex-husband, was elected by a fatigued country to throw in the towel to the US and end the war. But besides being a soothing motherly symbol, she didn't really have any political experience (she went to finishing school, not college), so her son-in-law Antonio became her super-minister, charged with stabilizing the nation's economy while she ran around the country with doves convincing everyone to through their AK-47s into a big tub of cement in her Peace Park. That's only a mild simplification.
And stabilize the economy he did, thanks to the wonders of neoliberalism and the U.S.´s newfound love for the government of Nicaragua. Our 2.5 hour chat with him was a necessary slap in the face, as it challenged a lot of the stories we've heard around here about the glorious ideals of the revolution. I imagine that somewhere in between his demonization of everything the Sandinistas did and the revolutionary propoganda that runs rampant through the country lies the truth.
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